After that, the benefits of introducing diversity initiative to organizations will be justified by this paper. Secondly, this paper will examine the social trends which are related to managing diversity in Australia. Finally, the challenges and recommendations will be presented in the final session.
Concepts of Diversity Management.
Definitions of Diversity Management.
Diversity management assumes that organization aims for effectiveness, productivity and competitive advantage through managing diversity. (D"Netto & Sohal, 1999:531) Unlike the notion of traditional HRM, diversity management acknowledges the differences between employees rather than seeing people as a generic category (Benshchop, 2001: 1167) Diversity is a combination of people who have different group identities from each other inside a specific organization. Narrow definitions of diversity concern race, gender, and ethnicity, whereas broader definitions of diversity refer to all differences among people. (Lewis et al., 2000: 107 sited Nkomo and Cox, 1996) Diversity is not only represented by race, age and gender, but other parameters, including religion, education, sexual orientation, personality type and other characters which may be invisible. (Salomon, 2003: 37) Diversity management is the effort and process to build a set of value which considers the differences between people as the potential advantage of organization. (Teicher et al., 2002: 324 sited Loden & Rosener 1991) Managing diversity can be achieved by creating and maintaining a heterogeneous workforce in a fair environment where no people will be treated differently and allowing individuals to develop their potential in order to reach the objectives of organizations. (D"Netto & Sohal, 1999:531 sited in Torres & Bruxelles, 1992; Jenner, 1994; Thomas, 1994).
Framework of Diversity Management.
Teicher et al. (2002) suggested that diversity management needs covered by three levels of administration, in terms of the strategic, managerial and operational level.